We value your privacy

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalized ads or content, and analyze our traffic. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to our use of cookies.
Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Skip to main content

Victor E. Shelford

Victor E. Shelford
Born: Chemung, NY 9/22/1877; died 12/27/1968
Education: Univ. of Chicago (B.S. 1903; Ph.D. 1907)
Dissertation title: The life histories and larval habits of the tiger beetles (J. Linn. Soc. London (Zool.) 30:157-184)
Advisor: C. M. Child (see comments)
Comments: Academic mentorship at Chicago in the early 20th century seems to have been rather ambiguous.  According to his biographer, Robert Croker, Shelford’s dissertation research, which was not particularly ecological, was supervised by developmental biologist C. M. Childs.  However, his candidacy for the Ph.D. degree was recommended to the faculty by the department chair, Charles Otis Whitman. In any case, his ecological ideas were clearly inspired by Henry C. Cowles, whom he described as “the teacher who influenced me most”.
Teaching history: Chicago 1907-14; Illinois 1914-46
Ph.D students: S. Charles Kendeigh
Others influenced: Stanley Auerbach (M.S.), Eugene P. Odum (Ph.D), Robert H. Whittaker (Ph.D)
ESA Offices and honors: Founder (1914); First ESA President 1916; Eminent Ecologist 1968.
ESA links: Eminent Ecologist
Archived Papers: Victor E. Shelford Papers 1896-1965. University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign IL. Includes a digitized interview of Shelford done in 1965. | Mentioned in Sigurd F. Olson Papers at Minnesota
External links: Smith bios | Wikipedia | Encyclopedia Britannica